Active Nitrogen in Surface Ozone Depletion Events at Alert during Spring 1998

Abstract

Measurements of NOx,y were made at Alert, Nunavut, Canada (82.5° N, 62.3° W) during surface layer ozone depletion events. In spring 1998, depletion events were rare and occurred under variable actinic flux, ice fog, and snowfall conditions. NOy changed by less than 10% between normal, partially depleted, and nearly completely depleted ozone air masses. The observation of a diurnal variation in NOx under continuous sunlight supports a source from the snowpack but with rapid conversion to nitrogen reservoirs that are primarily deposited to the surface or airborne ice crystals. It was unclear whether NOx was reduced or enhanced in different stages of the ozone depletion chemistry because of variations in solar and ambient conditions. Because ozone was depleted from 15–20 ppbv to less than 1 ppbv in just over a day in one event it is apparent that the surface source of NOx did not grossly inhibit the removal of ozone. In another case ozone was shown to be destroyed to less than the 0.5 ppbv detection limit of the instrument. However, simple model calculations show that the rate of depletion of ozone and its final steady-state abundance depend sensitively on the strength of the surface source of NOx due to competition from ozone production involving NOx and peroxy radicals. The behavior of the NO/NO2 ratio was qualitatively consistent with enhanced BrO during the period of active ozone destruction. The model is also used to emphasize that the diurnal partitioning of BrOx during ozone depletion events is sensitive to even sub ppbv variations in O3.